Macedonian PM's furniture set on fire over phone-tapping scandal

Macedonia’s capital Skopje endured its third night of protests on Thursday as the country wrestles with one of its worst political crises since its 1991 independence, triggered by a presidential decision to pardon dozens implicated in a massive wire-tapping scandal.

It comes as 12 people were arrested and a journalist injured when furious protesters broke into an office used by the president.

Demonstrators smashed windows and set fire to the president’s furniture in a display of the anger now aimed at the president.

Although Thursday’s march was marred by scuffles that left a number of policemen injured the violence did not reach the levels seen on Wednesday night.

Several thousand demonstrators chanted “No Justice: No Peace” and “Freedom for Macedonia” outside the national parliament, and Zoran Zaev, a leading opposition leader, called for the resignation of Gjorge Ivanov, the Macedonian president.

Protestors burn furniture taken out of the president'­s office in SkopjeCredit:
Boris Grdanoski/AP

Mr Ivanov sparked widespread outrage on Tuesday when, in a surprise move, he pardoned 54 politicians implicated in a massive phone-tapping scandal that may have covered up 20,000 people.

But rather than defusing the situation his decision has escalated political tensions and fed widespread suspicions in the Macedonian population that the country is run by a corrupt political elite that is above the law.

As an indication of the deep political divisions rocking the Balkan country Thursday night also saw a counter demonstration during which Mr Zaev was branded a “traitor” and a “foreign mercenary”.

In a statement issued earlier the week the VMRO-DPMNE, Macedonia’s main ruling party, also accused the opposition of organising Wednesday’s violence and in doing so “had laid the foundations of a Ukrainian scenario”.

Despite the tense political atmosphere gripping Macedonia, on Friday Trajko Veljanoski, the speaker of the Macedonian parliament, announced the general election scheduled for June 5 would go ahead.

Mr Zaev’s SDSM party has already announced a boycott of the poll, claiming conditions for a free and fair vote have not been met.